The members of Oakland music trio MeloDious are all under 20 years of age. Siblings from a musical family, MeloDious combines superb musicianship and a warm jazz-informed sound, built on a foundation of music business acumen. MeloDious plays at the Oakland Museum on Feb. 27 and at Noise Pop on March 2.
All of the Dempsey siblings began playing instruments at a young age; music is part of the family tradition. Their maternal grandfather had his own group, the Ebony Jam Band. “When my mom was growing up, the basement of her house was full of handmade instruments,” says Micaiah Dempsey, keyboardist and eldest member of the group.
When Micaiah, now 19, was 2 years old, her grandfather recognized her ear for music. “He would write a song, and I would sing it back to him verbatim,” she recalls. “He told my mom, ‘Put her in music!’” When Micaiah’s grandfather passed away two years later, her mom enrolled Micaiah in piano lessons “as a tribute to him,” she says. “And it just stuck with me. It became my ‘sport.’”
Micaiah’s siblings followed suit. Matthias, then 17, initially chose bass guitar; Memphis, 15, took up drumming. “We started off playing, singing in the choir,” Micaiah says. “One day we realized, ‘Wait a minute, we could all play our instruments together!’”
Billed as the Dempsey Kids, the siblings began accepting gigs. Soon enough, an uncle who had been booking them approached their manager/mom. “I can’t keep calling them the Dempsey Kids,” he told her. “We need a real name.”
When “Momager,” as her kids playfully named her, woke up the following morning, she heard birds singing in the trees. “That’s very melodious,” she thought. With that, the Dempsey Kids had a new name.
“We officially became MeloDious on June 25, 2016,” Micaiah says. The group’s unique spelling represents the initials of each of the three musicians.
The first MeloDious headliner show took place at Yoshi’s. “We went out on a limb and bet that we could do it,” Micaiah says. “We learned a lot about ticket sales and how to promote ourselves. But our community really came out for us, and we sold out the show. It was a beautiful feeling.”
That Yoshi’s date was a landmark gig for MeloDious. “It was our proof that hard work pays off,” Micaiah says, adding that their mother always encouraged them to be curious. “Through every process—whether it’s recording music, booking a festival date for the first time or whatever—we were taught to ask questions and get clarification.”
The trio plays covers, but also writes original music. Micaiah admits that at first they found it challenging to reconcile their differences in the form of new songs. “The solution we came up [with],” she says, “was that each of us writes individually, and when a song is 75% finished—when you have a groove and lyrics—you bring it to the group.” At that point, finishing the song becomes “a collaborative experience. We help build up each others’ idea, and we enhance their vision.”
MeloDious released a debut EP, Is It The Way: Volume 1, in 2023. The sessions for that collection marked the siblings’ first time in a recording studio. Recording the basic tracks “was a learning experience,” Micaiah says. “We were in the studio every day, 10 hours a day, for two weeks.” Micaiah says the three musicians will never again take such an intense approach to recording.
Instead, they prefer the working method used to finish the album. “We worked in our engineer’s basement and garage,” Micaiah says, “just changing and tweaking things” without pressure. “That’s the recording environment I love; you have so much more flexibility to create when you’re not under a time constraint.”
MeloDious works primarily as a trio, but Matthias is away at school in D.C. for the next six months. So their upcoming pop-up performances at the Oakland Museum and the Noise Pop date will feature Micaiah and Memphis plus a special guest. “You’re going to see a surprise musician at every gig,” Micaiah says with a smile. “I’m excited for people to see these shows.”
More info, visit 4melodious.com. Instagram: @thisismelodious.
